Why I hop between iPhone and Android

This story first appeared in Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get advice like this every Tuesday.

Full disclosure: I’m stealing this column idea from friend and fellow journalist Dwight Silverman.

Last November, Dwight said he was considering a year-long experiment with using an Android phone instead of an iPhone. Being entrenched in Apple’s ecosystem, he wanted to experience the cost of switching the hard way, and he planned to start with whatever Pixel phone Google launched in the fall of 2024.

Now, Dwight tells me he’s abandoned the idea. Although Google recently announced new Pixels, he’s already realized that Apple’s lock-in measures would be insurmountable.

While I’m bummed we won’t get to read about Dwight’s experience, I’m happy to share my own. My everyday phone is a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, but I used an iPhone 13 Pro Max before that and have toggled between iPhone and Android plenty of times over the years. With new iPhones arriving soon, it won’t be long before I’m back in Apple’s world again.

I switch not just for research purposes, but because I have a pathological aversion to being locked into any one computing platform. I enjoy being able to choose the hardware that suits me best—for instance, foldable phones, which Apple still won’t make—and appreciate knowing that if a company treats me poorly, I can take my business elsewhere.

Hopping between iPhone to Android does require flexibility, foresight, and even a bit of sacrifice, but the upside can be significant. Even if you have no intention of switching, it’s at least worth thinking about how you might.

Avoiding iCloud services

My first rule as a frequent phone switcher is to avoid Apple’s cloud-based services and use alternatives that work on both iOS and Android:

• I turn off iCloud Photos and back up my pictures with the OneDrive and Google Photos apps.
• I store my passwords in Bitwarden and disable iCloud Keychain.
• I avoid the “Sign in with Apple” option for apps unless I know they’re iOS-only.
• Instead of Apple Notes and Reminders, I use Obsidian and Google Keep for writing, note-taking, and to-do lists.
• I buy e-books through Kindle instead of Apple Books.
• Instead of Safari, I use other browsers with cross-platform bookmarks and history, such as Vivaldi.

Using Apple’s services can be more frictionless. iCloud Photos, for instance, will sync each photo’s edit history from the Camera Roll, whereas Google Photos stores the original and modified photo as separate copies. And when you’re signing up for a new app, generating a secure password in iCloud Keychain takes fewer steps than it does in other password managers.

But I’d rather use the alternatives anyway, because they tend to be richer in features than what Apple offers. Avoiding Apple’s defaults just requires some deliberate effort.

Eschewing single-platform apps

Third-party iPhone apps that don’t have Android or Windows counterparts are usually a no-go for me. I won’t take notes with Bear, track to-do list items with Clear, or log recipes with Mela, because as beautiful as those apps are, I’d have no way to access my content outside of Apple’s world.

The only exceptions are for apps I wouldn’t use beyond the iPhone anyway, like the excellent Fan of Sleep ambient noise generator or Parcel for package tracking.

Managing hardware lock-in

The more Apple devices you own, the harder it can seem to switch between iPhone and Android. But in my experience, the trade-offs are manageable:

• AirPods work fine over Bluetooth with Android phones and Windows PCs. You’ll miss a few fancier features, like head tracking and low-latency gaming audio, and having an iOS device can be helpful for settings tweaks, but noise cancellation, track-skipping, and volume control work with any device.
• An iPad is a suitable companion to an Android phone, especially if you avoid Apple-only apps and services.
• The Apple TV is a great streaming box regardless of which phone you use. The main downside is not having access to AirPlay screen mirroring from Android and Windows.
• Even AirTags can be located through Apple’s Find My website, which works in any Android web browser.

The biggest roadblock is the Apple Watch, which only works with iPhones, just as Wear OS watches only work with Android phones. Unless you go with a platform-neutral brand such as Garmin, switching platforms will also mean switching watches. (On the upside, previous-generation Wear OS watches tend to be cheap, especially on the used and refurbished markets.)

Overcoming the network effects

The hardest part of switching ecosystems has nothing to do with your own choices, but rather those of everyone around you:

• iMessage is still the most powerful tool in Apple’s lock-in arsenal. I’m too old to care about the social stigma of green bubbles, but can’t stand the degradation of image and video quality over standard SMS/MMS, which kicks in for conversations between iOS and Android users.
• While plenty of Facetime alternatives exist, convincing people to use them is a chore. Usually I just reach for my iPad instead.
• If my kids request a new app through Apple’s “Ask to Buy” system, I can only approve it on an Apple device.

I’m looking forward to iOS 18, whose RCS messaging support will bring full-resolution images and other iMessage-like features to texts with Android users. Everything else I’ve just learned to live with or work around.

The little things

As Dwight mentioned in his initial plans, hopping between iPhone and Android is hindered not just by big services like iMessage, but all the small ways Apple glues its ecosystem together. You might, for instance, rely on Universal Clipboard to copy an item on a Mac and paste it on an iPhone, or you might use AirPlay to stream audio from an iPhone to compatible Wi-Fi speakers. You might want to use an iPhone as a Mac webcam, or use an iPad as a secondary Mac display.

Cross-platform workarounds often exist, like Camo, Pairdrop, and Spacedesk, but they take extra effort to set up and aren’t as frictionless as Apple’s built-in features.

Is it worth it?

Having more phones to choose from is nice—and there are certainly elements of Android that I enjoy more than iOS—but going through all this effort is really more philosophical than practical. Inevitably, Apple will do something that upsets you, and there’s comfort in knowing that when it happens, you haven’t backed yourself into a technological corner.

Apple’s worked hard over the years to make the alternative seem impossible, but I can tell you from experience that it’s not. If nothing else, I hope Dwight reads this and gives the idea another shot.

This story first appeared in Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get advice like this every Tuesday.